Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Who’s scared of who? Miss Gu, do you have lots of confidence?” Huo Shaoheng laughed, his slender fingers reaching over to smooth her bangs and reveal her bare forehead. He bent down to kiss her.
Gu Nianzhi closed her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling like two tiny fans gently fluttering. “Of course I have confidence. It’s because you give me confidence…” Gu Nianzhi murmured. She reached out to embrace Huo Shaoheng’s neck.
Huo Shaoheng focused his eyes on her, the smile gradually fading from his face. “Ok, tell me. What is your plan? Don’t think that you can fool me by being coquettish and flattering me.”
Gu Nianzhi opened her eyes, the pupils so black they glowed. Shaking her head slowly, she rejected his threat. “No, I don’t have any plans.”
“You really don’t?” Huo Shaoheng grabbed her arm to pull her elbow off of his neck. Then he used one hand to clamp both her wrists and pressed them against the pillow. His strapping figure pressed dangerously low to completely envelope her.
“You really won’t tell me?”
Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips. Her large eyes sparkled briefly, but she refused to speak. If she guessed correctly, the elevator accident in their dorm must have been Ishihara Taro’s handiwork. She had leaked news about her early graduation in order to force Ishihara Taro to take action sooner. Although part of this was due to Gu Nianzhi’s involvement, she never thought that Ishihara Taro would also harm Gui Suyao as well.
This person was insane and bloodthirsty. No one knew better than Gu Nianzhi how difficult it would be to bring him to justice. Now that she also knew about her father’s quarrel with the Ishihara family, it was all the more reason why she couldn’t stop things halfway.
This matter was not something Huo Shaoheng could get involved in, nor did she want him to. He had many methods, but the Special Operations Forces had too many constraints domestically. A slight lapse in judgement could result in a catastrophic blow to Huo Shaoheng’s future career prospects.
Gu Nianzhi smiled, revealing four pearly teeth. “I really don’t have any plans.” She paused, then continued, “Even if I had one, it’d be a fail-proof plan. You don’t need to worry.”
Huo Shaoheng looked at Gu Nianzhi pointedly, a trace of unease gradually appearing in his calm gaze. Releasing Gu Nianzhi’s wrists, he straightened his back and sat on the single-seat sofa by the bed. Crossing his legs, his strapping figure cast a shadow as his gaze gradually grew dark.
“Gu Nianzhi, look at me. Do you even know what you’re doing? Do you know who the enemy you’re facing actually is? Do you know what methods they have? How much power they hold? If you know all this but are still stubbornly refusing to tell me what you’re going to do, then I really have to doubt if you are the Gu Nianzhi I raised single-handedly!” It was the first time in both their memories that he had spoken so harshly to her.
Gu Nianzhi sat up from the blankets and took a deep breath. She mustered her courage and said, “Huo Shao, I know what situations I’ll face, and I also know you’ll get worried. But can you, just this one time, have some confidence in me?”
“Confidence?”
“Right. Believe me and believe that I can do this properly. I can handle this type of situation.” The truth was, she was the only one who could handle it.
Huo Shaoheng’s brows began to furrow. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but the more minds at work, the more can be considered. How can I know if I can be assured or not, if you don’t tell me?”
However, Gu Nianzhi knew she couldn’t tell him. As soon as she said it, the entire situation would change, and this would also become a “false random.” If there were too many variables, the so-called algorithm would be impossible to start up. She would also have no way of fighting against Ishihara Taro.
Gu Nianzhi looked down, her hand randomly picking at the silk quilt. “You keep talking about it, but at the end of the day, you still don’t believe in me. You don’t believe in my abilities.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe in your abilities. I know that you’re very smart and very impressive, but…”
“But what?” Gu Nianzhi interrupted Huo Shaoheng, gritting her teeth. “When I was in danger in Germany, I still walked out of the Alps alive—and without you…”
Huo Shaoheng stopped abruptly. His gaze gradually darkened, and his expression was ice cold. He watched Gu Nianzhi unmovingly. Danger in Germany. It was the danger in Germany yet again. That incident had threatened their relationship and was like a giant mountain between the two of them. Sometimes he thought they had already crossed that giant mountain, but after going around in circles, they always ended up discovering they still had a mountain and sea between them.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t want to say too much. She leaned on one side and half covered herself with the blanket as she spoke to Huo Shaoheng with her back facing him. “Huo Shao, you should go. I have a defense this Saturday, and I will be considered graduated after the defense. Before that happens, I hope that you won’t come looking for me again. I know what I’m doing. Nothing will happen to me.”
“You’re very determined.” Huo Shaoheng looked thoughtfully at Gu Nianzhi’s back. It was curvy, slender, and alluring, but there seemed to be a thousand mountains and rivers dividing them.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t reply and only answered him with a long silence.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t know whether he should believe Gu Nianzhi, but regardless if he believed her or not, he was always accustomed to controlling the entire situation, even if that meant all of Gu Nianzhi’s “independence and freedom” needed to be within his sight and grasp. They could never leave his control.
“Since you’re unwilling to tell me, I won’t force you.” Huo Shaoheng mused as he stood up, “Then we will have to do our own things and not interfere with each other.” Huo Shaoheng left Gu Nianzhi’s apartment as soon as he said this, not lingering for even a moment more.
He came in the darkness and left in the darkness, so the people from the Ishihara family watching Gu Nianzhi didn’t even notice someone moving freely right under their noses.
Returning to his headquarters base, Huo Shaoheng called Zhao Liangze to his office in the middle of the night. Zhao Liangze had just fallen asleep not long ago, so his brain was still groggy when he was awakened in the middle of the night. He yawned as he walked in.
“Huo Shao, what happened?” Zhao Liangze sat across from Huo Shaoheng. Everything was still normal when he had just left the Central Control Room. Could something serious have happened in less than one hour? Zhao Liangze gave Huo Shaoheng a perplexed look.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t even know where to begin. His hand on the cursor, he loudly flipped cards on the solitaire card game on the computer. After some time, he finally replied, “Is there a program that can monitor Nianzhi 24 hours a day?”
Zhao Liangze shivered, his drowsiness instantly disappearing. Shaking his head, he asked blankly, “Huo Shao, what are you saying? Who are you monitoring 24 hours a day?”
Huo Shaoheng glanced at him coolly. “Gu Nianzhi, you couldn’t hear me?”
“Why do you need to monitor Nianzhi 24 hours a day?!” Zhao Liangze jumped up. “I object! That means the young girl doesn’t have any privacy at all! Huo Shao, this is too much! She’s not a lab rat! You can’t treat her like this!”
Huo Shaoheng didn’t think that Zhao Liangze would be even more agitated than he was himself—the official boyfriend/husband. He silently glanced at him. “I haven’t finished speaking yet. What are you so anxious for? Hurry up and sit down properly.”
His voice wasn’t loud, but his tone was solemn enough that Zhao Liangze deflated as soon as he spoke. He muttered as he sat down and frowned, “Please speak clearly then. You were the one mentioning monitoring her 24 hours a day. My ears aren’t going deaf.”
“I know your ears aren’t deaf.” Huo Shaoheng averted his gaze. “I mentioned monitoring her 24 hours a day because I was asking you if this is technically feasible. We can only talk about the other things if 24-hour surveillance is possible. Of course, we don’t actually need 24-hour surveillance. But I need the function of freely selective monitoring at any time and place. Can this be done?”
Zhao Liangze sighed in relief. He massaged his still spinning head and replied lethargically, “Of course it’s technically possible. Nianzhi is still wearing our specially made diamond earrings, so it’s entirely possible to selectively monitor her at any time and place.”
“That’s good.” Huo Shaoheng was silent for a brief moment, then turned on his computer to start the program that linked Gu Nianzhi’s diamond earrings with tracking capabilities. He connected to the large screen in the office.
“This is Nianzhi’s tracking system. Write an algorithm for me that can connect with all the public surveillance cameras in the entire city. Within the next week and at every single public location that Gu Nianzhi appears in, there must be at least four cameras covering her whereabouts from the front, back, left, and right angles.”
“Roger, Chief.” Zhao Liangze straightened his back and puffed out his chest to accept the order.
“Launch an idle satellite to cover the public places that Gu Nianzhi appears in from above. Every trick that appears around her will reveal itself within the next week.” Huo Shaoheng raised his head and looked at Zhao Liangze grimly. “Can you do it?”
“Yes, Chief!” Zhao Liangze answered loudly to express his determination. The truth was, while the initial algorithm was rather troublesome, the subsequent full coverage surveillance cameras and birds-eye view satellite was a walk in the park. Zhao Liangze was an expert hacker and a master of computer technology at the same time. He was also obsessed with algorithms. For Huo Shaoheng’s request, Zhao Liangze had instantly came up with several ideas, but he still needed to verify which one was the most optimized algorithm.
Perking up as he left Huo Shaoheng’s office, Zhao Liangze returned to the Central Control Room on the sixth floor of the basement. He began to write the algorithm. He input several algorithms that he had long ago devised into the computer, then input the model of Gu Nianzhi’s positioning device and the coordinates of all the public surveillance cameras in the city.
He checked to see which algorithm produced the quickest and most comprehensive results. This algorithm was actually similar to Vlookup in Excel. One constantly changing variable continuously extracted data from a given database according to fixed conditions. It would extract from at least four different directions each time.
At dawn, Zhao Liangze finally put together an algorithm with the highest efficiency, then sent it to Huo Shaoheng. Huo Shaoheng would perform the final check.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t sleep for another night. When it was almost dawn, he sprawled on the desk and napped for a while. He woke up as soon as the computer’s notification sounded. Taking a closer look, he saw that Zhao Liangze had sent his algorithm over.
Huo Shaoheng quickly turned on his computer and performed calculation tests on Zhao Liangze’s algorithm. There were some parts of the results that he wasn’t fully satisfied with, so he finally modified it himself before sending it back to Zhao Liangze so he could cross-examine it.
Zhao Liangze ran the algorithm modified by Huo Shaoheng, then nearly wanted to kneel down. It was now a whole ten times faster than his previous algorithm! The CPU usage saved had basically increased geometrically!
With this algorithm, Gu Nianzhi really had no privacy at all whenever she went out. Zhao Liangze chuckled as he lit a candle for Gu Nianzhi and also sent Huo Shaoheng back the program he had cross examined. “Huo Shao, I give you the best kiss!” He even added a lewd red lips emoji at the end.
Huo Shaoheng ignored his useless message and quickly received the algorithm. He immediately began to run it. The large screen in the office instantly lit up to reveal Gu Nianzhi’s figure. She wore an attractive, short style Moncler down jacket in royal blue, blue straight leg jeans, and white sneakers. Her pretty figure was like that of a Victoria’s Secret angel, looking as refreshing as the blue sky above her head on the heavy winter morning.
Huo Shaoheng sat behind his desk and watched Gu Nianzhi’s pretty, bright face appear on the large screen in front of him. The corners of his shapely lips couldn’t help smirking.
At that moment, he saw two men who looked to be passersby appearing on either sides of Gu Nianzhi. The two men held phones and looked down as they walked. Huo Shaoheng’s brows began to frown. He used one hand to continuously adjust the angle of the surveillance cameras and was finally able to clearly discern the two men’s movements. They were monitoring Gu Nianzhi’s whereabouts.
However, Gu Nianzhi wasn’t totally oblivious.
Huo Shaoheng could clearly see her swiftly glancing at where the two men were, then nonchalantly getting into her bright red sports car. She drove off in an instant. The high-definition cameras provided an extremely clear visual experience, but Huo Shaoheng was balling his hands into tight fists.
This girl was playing with fire…
